Mike Macdonald: "I'm Excited To See Our Guys Play" | Press Conference - September 4, 2024

uh all right uh great to see everybody um it's here it's time uh guys are excited we're excited uh excited to be at home excited to be in front of the 12 it's going to be loud um I hope that my ears are ringing hope that we have trouble communicating that's a big point of sist this week but uh got a really good opponent coming into town but um we got a full weeks work full weeks worth of work ahead of us and um yeah it's just an exciting time so uh got a lot of work to do though you know it's the prep's not done until you kick off and so uh but the guys know that just had a great walk through and I'll be uh having a great Wednesday practice here in a minute what's the difference between practicing and preparing this week compared to any of the other preseason games uh well we're working stuff tailored toward the towards the opponent um almost probably 85% of the practice uh we'll do some stuff that's you know fast try to work execution with the oneson ones mostly it's Ed um Dealers Choice type of plays the whole time so everything's pretty much directed at you know the other side of the ball at this point what is it like obviously you're lock thend and everything like that but this journey that started you know back in January now it's here with the regular season what this like for you first yeah well it's come a little full circle being up on the on the podium here on the stage having flashbacks of our intro press conference forgot to wear my hoodie but yeah I think we just you know told told everybody today just or this week how much uh how appreciative we were of all the work that goes into it uh there's so many people behind the scenes you know all the players all the support staff um everyone in the building I mean just it's so I mean it's so much work and just try to get it aligned and kind of bringing it in the same direction which I just I'm very appreciative of everybody's attitude and um you I think we're on our way to that you know I think that's an ongoing process from here till eternity hopefully and um but here we are you know so we got to go play a football game and and uh go try to put our best foot forward coach it took a few games for Baltimore defense to adapt to your scheme how do you compare this defense's uh Readiness compared to that um you know I wouldn't say it's a a fair assessment to say it took time for them to adapt I think we're all learning um there's definitely things that I took from that experience of our slow start um that we've we've been we've changed and evolved you know the end of through the end of 2022 uh through the offseason been a long time through the offseason of 23 um and then into this off season so I would I would consider it a constant you know um evolution of how we approach it how we teach it expectations what we call uh lot of lot of great Lessons Learned in that situ hopefully we've learned from them you know and and the guys go out and play great but um things are going to happen that we're going to need to fix whether or not that's you know reared in their heads again from you know past m Stakes but don't expect that I think the guys in a great spot go ahead B with everything that you have sort of have to do on game day now as a head coach that's added from what you had to do as a defensive you obviously got experience with that the preseason but I guess do you feel like all those kind of kinks are worked out and you kind of know now exactly what it is with calling the plays on defense and being the head coach and all that yeah I mean we're confident in our process uh I would to say that we've got everything worked out that's not I wouldn't say that I mean we're we're aware that things can happen that we're probably that we might not be prepared for we've tried our very best to be you know dotting our eyes and peing our cues being thorough in our our preparation uh confident in our people that you know on their roles and everything our communication has been really smooth in the preseason there's been a couple things that we've debriefed on that we've we've had to make right and uh that's okay you know that's that's that's that's what's going to happen so I think in those times it's just you know staying present um being a clear being clear you know communication wise and uh making trying to make the best decision you can in the moment from from having you know assessed how you're going to try to play the game from the get-go and then you know obviously how it evolves you know as the game starts to declare itself so um you know those are things that uh we'll be you know we'll be learning from and growing from as the weeks kind of start to you know progress here but I feel good where we're at that decision yeah I'm I'm going to be calling fls yeah on defense it's a team effort I'm just want hitting the button and saying the words you said you hope your ears are ringing as a guy who's coach your defense your whole career how much difference can that make got yeah it's it's a huge difference I mean teams operate have to operate on silent count which um you know just's you can go into all the different reasons on why that's why that's tougher um sometimes on defense it makes it harder to communicate and and get things you know get things aligned but those are good problems to have nness on both sides of this matchup what do you even go back to scheming and and when you're when you're working specifically for the Broncos syst yeah for beginning of seasons is tough because you know uh everyone has an idea about who they are and what they want to be and what type of you know the plays that kind of what they want to hang their hat on uh schematically the Personnel how they want to utilize their personnel so you don't have that sample size you know at this time of year so um you really just have to focus on executing your stuff uh the best you possibly can and make them you know beat you throwing your fast ball so um that's been the message to guys you know we're going to be running our stuff we're going to be running our stuff from now until whatever but um yeah it's just it's hard to kind of pick and choose and tailor it to how they've operated because the sample is just not there like um you go back and look at his much of his college tape and then and then what stands out about him you yeah I think it's a a sliding scale you know so to speak but um on how much you you know f Factor all the things you know this this system is is um you know Sean's system it seems like that they've been really successful with for such a long time and Bose seems like he's a great fit for what they're asking him to do uh which is a little bit different than some of the stuff now you know some of those things might carry over how he operates things like that um his strengths probably will definitely you know uh transfer from from college to the pros but uh I wouldn't put too much stock into it but we have a lot of respect for him as a player and um uh uh but we're also defending like the plays that you know Sean's been running for for years uh I mean I'll speak to just my experience of him and being here for the last six months I mean he's just a he's just a beast man I mean he's like he's uh I've told you this but you have to account for where he's at at any given point and um we got a couple guys like that but DK is definitely um the top of the list you know on people that can go take it to the house on any on any play whether it's a catch and run speak of the devil whether it's a catch and run or um you know taking the top off the defense so we hopefully hopefully Denver has a hard time finding them on Mike gu I'm guessing you have a a general sense of what do you think this team's going to be for you how far into a season does it take how much of that sample size that you kind of mentioned does it kind of need before you kind of get a this is what we are this is yeah I think you have to be you have to evolve the whole time and as the season starts to you know you get to the middle of the Season you you kind of run out of change up so now you're looking at okay these are our Tendencies now because this is what we feel like we're good at that's good you should have Tendencies good good teams should have Tendencies otherwise they're just playing random football we don't want to operate like that but what you know how do we keep the ball you know keep it keep the picture moving keep them honest so that you know they can handle all the complimentary plays as well so um um but that's not where we're at right now we're trying to we're trying to find our fast ball so to speak so um but that's how it works it's not like a given time or whatever where you're you're making certain decisions to constant uh evaluation constant Evolution with that how excited are you just this will be the first actual game you had preseason had Camp first time having aone there whole game against another opponent you see what it actually looks like yeah I'm excited to see our guys go play I mean every anytime even in the preseason the guys that were playing in those games I was excited to go you know go see them do it for real so um this is I mean the stakes are are higher obviously but um yeah I think our I'm just you just go down the list of everyone that's going to step on the field I can kind of I could give you a um a reason on why you know exciting to see them go do their thing and and and uh you know go play some ball [Music] Ro um I I don't know I don't have like all the Run percentages and like pass percentage it's more like types of plays you have to defend um they're smart coaches they got they got a great scheme he's a really good player they're going to we expect them to do the things that Bo does well you know keep the ball moving try to try to create some explosive plays be successful in the Red Zone um but that you know probably say that every week you know but um I think these guys do a really good job of that what about Bo as a quarterback makes him a good fit for Sean system well he plays on time it seems like he makes a lot of fast decisions and then uh you know kind of like Drew was like he's an underrated like athlete you know just being able to move in the pocket extend plays um seems like he's really accurate I think he has probably an underrated arm he can he can he can deliver the ball just about anywhere so um I think the decision- making how fast he plays is probably one of the things they they like about him what's what are the Hallmarks of aan pton off uh you're going to get he's going to play everybody um they do a great job playing all their guys a lot of different Personnel groups um run and pass are complimentary drop back game I think um is consistent for the quarterback but you know they can they can create explosives that way too and then um they you know they get the ball to their Playmakers so um it's a tried and true system they they've done it really well for a long time you had tus Bowser obviously in Baltimore for a while what I guess what can he maybe do with you guys here well would be a similar role that he did in Baltimore um tus is a guy that um has a lot of pass rush value uh can play on the edge on early Downs he can play outside back or for us has a lot of drop ability and then um he he's used to a lot of the special team schemes that we're running so um he'll be effective in in those areas as well and then the way the kickoff game is going now too like he might be an asset for us in that phase as well with chenu how how much more of a sense do you know where he's going to be at you if he might need or well we didn't put them on IR so like you can probably put two and two together on when we hope have them back so um there's no definite timetable right now though he's gonna he's gonna play for us eventually um no he looks great and um we'll uh we'll see how it plays out throughout the rest of the week anything else one thing question has anything come up that was that you didn't expect training camp I mean every every day Greg I mean I wanted to I wanted to finish my workout today and work on some third down but things popped up and so you just you know you got to you got to you got to adjust on the Fly and that's okay it's part of the gig um everyone should have that mentality you know so you can't let it on to the next speaking of which thank you okay